Creating, Protecting, and Providing Access to Digital Culture

Agenda

IGF 2014 sub theme that this workshop fall under

Content Creation, Dissemination and Use

Description

The discussion seeks to address the interrelationship that is developing between the copyright regime and born-digital content in order “to accommodate technological innovation and new social patterns of consumption whilst supporting creativity and economic sustainability in both the developed and developing world” (IFLA Trend Report 2013).

In this respect, it is clear that digital technology has a great impact on traditional methods of content creation and distribution. The Internet environment also reflects the development of collaborative creativity and the new, more dynamic position of the user in the network eco-system. On the other hand, the need for maintaining economic incentives for creators, publishers and producers in fields such as education or media appears essential, and challenges associated with how best to capture and preserve our digital heritage still to be resolved How to best balance the needs of creators, distributors, consumers, as well as what we preserve for future generations, is being discussed in a number of forums, with licensing models, voluntary agreements, legislative reform and other solutions being considered. The panelists will discuss these issues from a range of perspectives, identifying concrete barriers and possible solutions.

Values of Paragraph 72 of the Tunis Agenda, such as “Promote and assess, on an ongoing basis, the embodiment of WSIS principles in Internet governance processes” and “Identify emerging issues, bring them to the attention of the relevant bodies and the general public..” will serve as framework for the discussion.

Name(s) and stakeholder and organizational affiliation(s) of institutional co-organizer(s)

Description of how the proposer plan to facilitate discussion amongst speakers, audience members and remote participants

Prepared presentations will be kept to a minimum, with the focus of the session being to facilitate audience discussion (both remotely and in the room) on finding optimal, collaborative solutions to improve access to digital content for consumers, while ensuring the needs of creators and distributors are met and respect for their interests.

Speakers representing different elements of the digital content ecosystem (creators, distributors, consumers, archives, policy makers) will provide 5 minute presentations putting forward their views. They will each prepare a question to ask the audience following their presentation, with 10 minutes allowed following their question for audience discussion (and input from other panelists). Following prepared comments and specific questions, the session will be open for general discussion with audience and panelists before concluding remarks, which hopefully will involve some agreed statements on facilitating and a healthy born digital culture ecosystem.

Description of the proposer's plans for remote participation

We will not be including remote panelists, but will be engaging groups of our membership to participate remotely. The IFLA Leaders Associates, for example, will be following the workshop remotely and expected to engage.